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Nate Diaz Complains & Dana White Responds

The Ultimate Fighter season 5 winner spoke with MMAFighting.com regarding his issues with his UFC pay, and explained that while he is ‘ready to fight tomorrow,' he feels like he is being kept on the ‘waiting list.'

"I'm ready to fight but not for some funny money that they're trying to give me. They can let me go or they can let me fight, but let me do something. They know I need to make some money. I feel like they're just trying to keep me on the waiting list. I don't even want to communicate through anybody. If they want to figure out what's going on, we should talk. No one is contacting me. I'm just doing my thing. Training every day. I'm ready to fight tomorrow. "

Diaz's main issue is the money he is being offered to fight. He stated that he considers it "chump change" and is far too embarrassed to accept that.

"They need to be about more money. My contract is all f*cked up. I want to be paid like these other fighters. I'm over here getting chump change. At this point, they're paying all my partners and other people I train with are getting real money, and it's too embarrassing for me to even fight again for the money they're paying me. So they can either pay me or let me go. I'm with that.

"I can't tell you what my brother and Gil make, but I can tell you that they signed a contract for more than I get paid to headline and win a fight, and that's bullsh*t. So you understand where I'm coming from? I can't even fight for the money they're offering me. So I ask to get released because I can't fight there for that. I don't talk to the UFC. No one calls me. I'm not going to call them begging. They know I'm on call, I take every fight. They know what they should be giving out."

Diaz also detailed his reasons for not accepting the Khabib Nurmagomedov fight, stating that the UFC was trying to "lowball" him and refused to renegotiate his contract.

"Then they called me to take the Khabib [Nurmagomedov] fight when it wasn't working out for them and Gil [Melendez]. They were trying to lowball Gil, too, and he was supposed to fight Khabib, but he said he couldn't take the fight for the money they were offering. So they call me the next day and ask me to fight Khabib. I said, I'll take the fight as long as I can renegotiate my contract. And then it was all downhill from there. Then they tweeted out that I turned down the fight, and I never turned down the fight. They tried to do me dirty. "

The Stockton native also admitted to being "broke" and indebted to the IRS, which adds to his frustrating situation with the promotion.

"If I can get released, I can go fight somewhere and make some money. If they can renegotiate, I can make some money, because right now I'm broke. For some reason, the IRS is telling me that I owe them more money than I have right now, and I pay my taxes every year. "

He concluded by claiming that he is paid less than the UFC's "cheerleaders."

"The crazy thing to me is that in what other professional sport do the cheerleaders make more than the athletes? I'm sure Arianny Celeste, Brittney Palmer, Joe Rogan, Bruce Buffer, probably you, everybody makes more money than I do. So I'm trying to make a move here. The way that the UFC makes me look, too, makes people I know believe that I'm some type of millionaire. I got a family to feed. I got my mom. She just got a brand new house and working two jobs still. I'm trying to break her off some money when I can but I'm going as broke as her. There's a lot more money that needs to be dished out because it's coming in, and I know it."

Long-time UFC contender Nate Diaz went on a tirade about pay tonight and Ariel Helwani got a follow up from UFC president Dana White:

"Nate Diaz came in and signed a new deal and was very happy with his new deal. We gave him a shot at the title and he lost to Benson Henderson. If he would have won, obviously his deal would have changed if he became champion, which he did not. Then he got stopped by Thomson. Thomson finished him.

"Now he comes off a win over Gray Maynard and feels like he should be making Justin Bieber money. Nate needs to get back in there and start fighting, win fights again and earn a title shot again.

"Guess how much money he makes sitting at home? Zero. Get back to work, Nate.

"He was happy as can be when he signed his new deal. Go back and look at my twitter after he signed the new deal. I tweeted it. He was happy. We've done everything to honor the contract. I've always been good to Diaz. This is the kind of craziness you see with athletes. They end up spinning off and don't make the money they should have made. Nate Diaz has what it takes to be champion or he doesn't, but I'll tell you, there's only one way to find out. He has to come back and fight. He thinks he loses to two of the best guys in the world and deserves more money? In what f*cking planet does that make sense?"

I don't like either guy, but I think Dana is more right. Nobody forced him to sign his contract. I do have a problem with Dana saying "I've been good to him". You're both grown men. You have a working relationship. He makes your company money, and you pay him for it. You aren't being good to him. You are conducting business. Stuff like saving Rampage from jail isn't even being good to him. It's in the best interest of the company to keep it's stars out of trouble. Stop acting like these are children that you are giving an allowance to, even if they do act like children.

Yes, Diaz signed the contract. Yes, Diaz is a grown man who can either decide to enter into a business contract or not. No, no one forced him too. Yes, Diaz should get a new manager.

But I feel for the guy, when the 'cheerleaders' for the fights make some than we established fighters who are a big draw... Something seems off. I can understand how he can feel ripped off and taken advantage of when talking to others about their contracts.

Diaz is easily a top draw in the LW div. Top draws should earn more than the 'support staff'.

But again, Diaz is a grown man and he decided that contract was good so it is hard to support someone when they made a deal and then try to back out when it is not going well for them.

I wonder if there is any language in his contract that allows him to renegotiate, or give him a little more pull. If not, then I would just fight through the contract and get it done ASAP. You can still voice your displeasure with it and warn other fighters about it while taking mental notes about what your new contract should entail.

The company EASILY turns a MULTI million dollar profit every year.
In fact, from the outside looking in... I would estimate that the UFC's actual net yearly profits at this point are in the HUNDREDS of millions of dollars.

So guys making 60 grand to show and 60 grand to win is just ridiculous.

I HATE the capitalist, corporate culture that preaches shit like "at least they have a job!" and "that's more than I make so Nate should stop complaining" and "Nate signed the contract so he should shut up!"

The reality is, Dana White and Co. work HARD... promoting fights between fighters who work HARD.

Without the UFC, the sport of MMA would not be as popular, nor as profitable, and these guys would not have such a glamorous place to showcase their skills... BUT!!!!!....

Without the FIGHTERS, the UFC would have NOTHING. You can't promote fights if you don't have fighters.

Profits should be split a LOT more equitably.
ESPECIALLY since it seems these guys and girls have ZERO job security!

So when you ARE well known, and can draw people to pay for shows... you should be PAID.

A LOT more than 60 to show and 60 to win... when the pay per view ALONE... at $50 bucks a pop and 250,000 buys (a CONSERVATIVE set of figures!) nets the UFC AT LEAST $12.5 MILLION.... per month.
(That's using conservative figures and factoring in only ONE revenue stream when, in reality, the UFC has MANY, MANY sources of income... from TV, to licensing, to accessories, sponsorships, etc!)

The UFC doesn't pay their fighters NEARLY enough.
Fighters make WAY more money than I do... or than YOU do probably... but when you look at the numbers, the UFC is NOT equitably sharing their profits with the athletes who are the heart and soul of their company.
On the contrary... it seems they are INCREASINGLY viewing fighters as DISPOSABLE as the list of competitors continues to grow, while the options for fighters continue to shrink.

Yes, Diaz signed the contract. Yes, Diaz is a grown man who can either decide to enter into a business contract or not. No, no one forced him too. Yes, Diaz should get a new manager.

But I feel for the guy, when the 'cheerleaders' for the fights make some than we established fighters who are a big draw... Something seems off. I can understand how he can feel ripped off and taken advantage of when talking to others about their contracts.

Diaz is easily a top draw in the LW div. Top draws should earn more than the 'support staff'.

But again, Diaz is a grown man and he decided that contract was good so it is hard to support someone when they made a deal and then try to back out when it is not going well for them.

You are right that he is one of the top draws at LW, but he isn't a draw in general. Very few 155ers are draws in my opinion though. Without looking at any sale numbers, I'd say Bendo, Pettis, and him do alright, but none of them are considered sure fire card sellers. The closest that that division has had to a big star is Penn and Edgar. That's not a knock on any of those guys, I'm just saying that deservedly so or not, Diaz isn't selling to many cards due to his own merit. That is a shame really because he and many other lower weights are incredibly entertaining.